Imam saves Finsbury Park Mosque attacker from being beaten to death

Police cordon off an area near Finsbury Park after a van ploughed into worshippers leaving a London mosque early. Facundo Arrizabalaga / EPA

LONDON // An imam stepped in to save the life of a man being beaten up after he drove a van into a group of Muslims outside a mosque in London.

The van driver injured 10 people in the attack on worshippers leaving Finsbury Park Mosque after prayers on Sunday night.

Darren Osborne, 47, from Cardiff in Wales, ploughed his rented van into a group of people gathered round a man who had collapsed and was receiving first aid. The man later died and police are investigating whether his death was related to the attack.

Osborne left the van after the attack and shouted “I want to kill all Muslims” before he was tackled by onlookers.

“He would’ve died because so many people were punching him but the imam came out and said, ‘No more punching, let’s keep him down until the police come’,” said one witness, Abdul.

The imam, Mohammed Mahmoud, said he and “other brothers” were able to halt the attack on the driver and held him until police arrived.

“By God’s grace, we were able to protect him from harm,” Mr Mahmoud said.

Osborne was arrested for “the commission, preparation or instigation of terrorism including murder and attempted murder”, Scotland Yard said.

It was the third terrorist attack in Britain in less than a month, after the Manchester pop concert bombing on May 22 and the London Bridge attacks on June 3.

British prime minister Theresa May said Sunday’s attack was “every bit as sickening” as those before it. “This was an attack on Muslims near their place of worship,” she said. “And like all acts of terrorism, it seeks to drive us apart.”

Sajid Javid, minister for communities and local government, said the attack was a hate crime.

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, described the attack as horrific. “This was clearly a deliberate attack on innocent Londoners, many of whom were finishing prayers during the holy month of Ramadan,” he said.

“While this appears to be an attack on a particular community – like the terrible attacks in Manchester, Westminster and London Bridge – it is also an assault on all our shared values of tolerance, freedom and respect.”

The terrorist attacks in London and Manchester were carried out by British Muslims and later claimed by ISIL, although the militant group supplied no evidence to support the claims.

On June 3, three men drove a rented van into pedestrians on London Bridge and then went on a stabbing spree in nearby Borough Market, killing 11 people and injuring at least 48.

In the days after, Mr Khan released statistics that showed a fivefold jump in Islamophobic attacks. Racist incidents had risen 40 per cent compared with the daily average so far this year.

On May 23, the day after the Manchester bombing at a pop concert by Ariana Grande killed 22, 141 hate crime incidents were recorded by Tell Mama, an organisation against anti-Muslim bigotry.

Compared to the daily average of 25, this represented an increase of nearly 500 per cent.